Arts + Entertainment

Staff Pick, Readers' Choice

Best Place to See a Jam Band

Otus Supply

Over the past decade or so, a strain of jam-based rock music mixing Americana, bluegrass, and roots influences has flourished, and in Michigan, Kalamazoo’s Greensky Bluegrass might best exemplify the genre. So it makes sense that the band helped christen Ferndale’s restaurant-music venue, Otus Supply, when it opened at the end of 2016. Thom Bloom, one of Otus Supply’s owners, says they saw a void in the local scene when it came to that kind of music. “When we set out to do the music program, we had a core belief that some of our favorite music was jam-based,” he says. “We’d get a lot of bands for 10 or 12 years who would just skip Detroit and do Cleveland and Chicago and sell out shows. There wasn’t really a home for that.” Until now. For the past year and a half, the venue’s Parliament Room has hosted a variety of acts primarily along the jam-band axis, but often delving into other genres as well, including recent shows by rockers Greta Van Fleet and funk pioneer George Porter Jr. The psychedelic music pairs well with Otus Supply’s out-of-this-world interior decor, as well as the restaurant’s inventive menu. “We wanted to create this place that was kind of like a utopia for us,” Bloom says. “We love music, and food, and art. We were always wondering why all of those couldn’t live in one venue.” — Lee DeVito